The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In general, inventory is product in any form, e.g., consumer goods, parts, raw materials, documents or other tangible items stored within a facility. A record of the inventory including attributes, such as identification by SKU, UPC or other identifying symbology, quantity, location, and product category are maintained. The data for these records may be compiled from transaction documentation such as delivery receipts, bills of lading, purchase orders, purchase receipts, and/or any other suitable procurement documents, or from a physical audit of the products stored at the facility. Regardless of the manner used to generate the inventory dataset, discrepancies may exist between the inventory records and the actual inventory of products stored within the facility. The inventory dataset can be verified and, if necessary, reconciled to minimize and ultimately eliminate these discrepancies;
Prior methods of verification require that the inventory records be printed out in a predetermined format which is then taken to a specific area in the facility for comparison to the inventory physically located there. These methods are inflexible, tedious and time consuming because the mode of verification is strictly dependant on the predetermined format of the printed reports and requires a repeated reference to the report and comparison with the actual inventory.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the shortcomings set forth above.